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Technical Paper

Constraints Driven Design of a Surface Inflatable Habitat Module

2006-07-17
2006-01-2101
Over the past two decades, the emergence of mature associative geometry modeling tools and the related sophistication in connected design/manufacture processes has enabled the design and realization of more complex, nonlinear structures. These techniques, first applied in the aerospace industry and currently being explored by architects, have matured into tools that can be used to optimize complex structural systems with irregular geometry. Potential advantages of this approach include: reduced mass penalty; optimized ECLSS and power sizing and performance; lower risk and lower cost in manufacturing; and flexibility, or the ability to customize individual vehicles according to function. One area of space architecture where constraint driven design can become an invaluable tool is in the optimization of space inflatable habitats. The first endoskeletal hybrid space module - TransHab – was developed in the late 1990s at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
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